Amazingly small for the specs. good build (not as good as Canon IXUS range), but still sturdy. Pictures are good quality, up with the competition. Although the Ricoh Caplio R4 offers no manual settings, there are sufficient combinations of control to make manual settings largely redundant. Screen still usable in bright sunlight, and due to a special screen mode it can be viewed in dark rooms (bit grainy in this mode though). Skew mode makes straight on flash shots of pictures possible without glare. Switch on fast. Shutter lag, minimal. Very quick and responsive. 800 ISO is grainy but still usable. Think the Caplio R4 is probably the best all-in-one solution available at the moment. 28 -200 equiv. lens gives great versatility. Pros: Lens, Skew mode, Small size. Cons: Slightly grainy screen.

personal rating: 95%

KC - SingaporeMay 23rd 2006 - 22:00 GMT

Got the blue Ricoh Caplio R4 with 1GB SD card and case from MS Color, a local store. The 28-200 zoom is very useful and I foresee that I'll use it very much (definitely more than my bulky DSLR). Image quality is alright and the stabilisation comes in useful. Noise control is pretty alright given the small sensor size and is a great improvement over the Caplio R3. The only downside to this Ricoh camera is the movie mode (320x240) which is a bit lacking compared to other models which can capture VGA (or bigger) clips.

personal rating: 85%

Andy - AustraliaJune 24th 2006 - 12:00 GMT

Got the Ricoh Caplio R4 camera very cheap (Y29,000) in Japan recently. Good camera for the money this week anyway. Super macro shots. The wide lens is something every camera should have. There's no rotate function for TV playback! It has manual focus, manual aperture, quick to access WB, ISO etc on a per shot basis. Quick to store. LCD display is quite noisy. The lens mechanism seems very sort of "slack" i.e. there is a lot of mechanical play between the lens groups. Software is bad, just use it in USB drive mode.

personal rating: 85%

Spring - MalaysiaApril 8th 2006 - 22:45 GMT

I got the Ricoh Caplio R4 exactly a month after it was announced. Being an amateur, I've been studying the manual and trying out the camera. So far, I've been really satisfied with it. The fun part is that I can understand the things I'm reading and learning. The pictures I've taken are simply wonderful. The wide angle feature and 7x optical zoom from such a compact camera is a dream come true as it can fit snugly into any bag whilst being able to take great pictures. The long battery life gives me peace of mind whenever I'm on an outing so no worries, only pleasure. The bottom line is, the Caplio R4 has all that I want in a little body. This camera rocks!